48 Hours at St. Clervaux - CMFB Mini Campaign
- Thread starter Rico
- Start date
After eventually kicking myself free of all the work deadlines and on a couple of weeks leave over festive season -- finally getting round to finishing designing and playtesting this -- might have to wait until the new year to start it up properly - - see how it goes -- maybe the week after Christmas. 
Playtesting going well -- want to add a little narrative aspect to the US side ... the cobbled together Straggler units and the battered Engineer companies thrown into the line have all been rallied and held together by energetic, determined officers (they increase the unit's motivation levels from POOR/LOW to NORMAL.)
Should that officer be killed, wounded or captured in a battle, the unit's morale and cohesion drops back down to POOR/LOW and most likely rout in the next battle (if there is one)
In above example, the 2nd Straggler Group holding the village and bridge at Holzthum is commanded by Capt. Stafford -- a platoon of three AT guns has arrived in support .
German StuGs and Motorised Panzer Grenadiers are reported advancing down the Munshausen Forest Road. (there's FOW, so enemy details very foggy until battle is joined)
A Straggler group is basically a improvised company made up of a hodgepodge of retreating troops -- riflemen with a few BAR's and the odd light mortar, MMG thrown in (if they are lucky some bazookas)
Should that officer be killed, wounded or captured in a battle, the unit's morale and cohesion drops back down to POOR/LOW and most likely rout in the next battle (if there is one)
In above example, the 2nd Straggler Group holding the village and bridge at Holzthum is commanded by Capt. Stafford -- a platoon of three AT guns has arrived in support .
German StuGs and Motorised Panzer Grenadiers are reported advancing down the Munshausen Forest Road. (there's FOW, so enemy details very foggy until battle is joined)
A Straggler group is basically a improvised company made up of a hodgepodge of retreating troops -- riflemen with a few BAR's and the odd light mortar, MMG thrown in (if they are lucky some bazookas)
@Rico But.... but.... I thought I was sitting this one out! Oh very well if you insist, slot me in if someone doesn't front up!
HAhaha ... it's just a random name I inserted for testing purposes
Latest update -- my playtesting has run into some snags -- need to rethink some of the OOB ... maybe scale things down (or up) -- and simplify a few rules ... still work in progress.
If a slot becomes free I would like to play as well please?
Testing completed — re-jigging of counters, OOB’s and the unit arrival chit pull system complete.
The scale is battalion level campaign with company-sized battle.
Just have to complete typing up the simplified, revised rules and this is ready to roll.
Won’t be able to share too much unit details as there is full FOW — suffice it say it’s a scramble of mixed units trying to fight a delaying action against the spearhead s of an “entire panzer division coming down that road.”
The scale is battalion level campaign with company-sized battle.
Just have to complete typing up the simplified, revised rules and this is ready to roll.
Won’t be able to share too much unit details as there is full FOW — suffice it say it’s a scramble of mixed units trying to fight a delaying action against the spearhead s of an “entire panzer division coming down that road.”
Just curious, in the poll for what style competition is preferred, Concord brought up the difficulties in finding battle maps.
How will you handle this aspect of the campaign?
How will you handle this aspect of the campaign?
In case of the Bulge St Clervaux campaign ... it's small company-sized battles on a zone-zone type map -- there's 18 map zones, so will need a max of 18 battle maps (and unlikely all the zones will be fought over... there is a method to my madness ... well, sort of) -- adapt all kinds of QB or scenario maps as I need them.
On the off chance there is a spot open sign me up as a simple grunt/commander. A change of pace from trying to control thing.
A while back I was thinking that players might be able to help adjusting QBs/Scenario's etc to blank maps and or add the objectives (many hands make work lighter). The difficulty with that is however (imo) how to coordinate / organize stuff, before we end up with the same map 5times under different names etc.
I got some chap (I forgot his name) over in the BF forums to send me converted maps for CMBS, very useful.
While I am still polishing up the rules for the campaign -- here so long a look at some of the counters to be used in the campaign.
Hoping to have this system standardised and to be able to use it for various settings/theatres.
There are two types of units:
1. Company (various types of infantry) - larger counters
2. Platoons (tanks, Stugs, light armour, guns, mortars and any other platoon-sized detachments that might appear in the campaign)
Vehicles counters have the number of vehicles listed next to the NATO symbol and losses are tracked on the counter and that number adjusted (all counters are editable in the Photoshop file through which I run the campaign)
Company/infantry counters have 3 pips under their NATO symbol that indicates the number of intact combat/rifle platoons this unit has.
(PzGrenadier counters also have a white pip that indicates they have a set of medium mortars attached)
After each battle, I will go through each platoon and assess losses -- if a platoon has +50% losses, it's pip is eliminated.
(Coy HQ's and vehicle crews of trucks and infantry carrier halftracks are ignored -- gun and fire support halftracks will appear as their own vehicle platoon counters)
There is full Fog Of War -- so most of the time, the respective Allied or Axis CO's will only see the the enemy FOW markers on the strategic map, indicating what type of units are present in an adjacent zone (if that) -- no strength details will be given as those will only become apparent once battle is joined (especially since this campaign will be fought in two days and one night of fog and bad weather)
So for example, you might have an enemy Armoured PzGren FOW marker with an enemy StuG FOW marker in the next zone from the one held by your units.
That'll indicate that halftrack-borne infantry has been spotted and tanks are present -- exact numbers and strengths unknown (you can assume approx company strength for the enemy infantry unit -- but how strong exactly is never clear until combat ensues.
As movement and attack orders for both sides will be played out simultaneously by me, you might have ME encounter battles were neither side has any clue of enemy strength -- so battles will have to be fought with flexibility in mind.
Bluff can also play a part -- if a small defending unit manages an ambush and give the enemy a bloody nose -- they might think your units are stronger than they appear and withdraw and await reinforcements.
There is a stacking limit of ONE company and 3 support platoons per zone -- this is to reflect the cramped nature of the battlefield with especially muddy road and ground conditions limiting off-road movement and deployment.
Movement and attack is from zone to zone along roads (solid connecting lines) -- during DAY 1 (when it's very muddy and foggy) foot infantry can advance along dotted lines (no vehicles at all)
At some point by nightfall of Day 1, it snows and the ground freezes, and tracked vehicles are allowed to move and attack in direction of the white connecting lines as well.
OBJECTIVES:
AMERICANS: fight a desperate two-day delaying action to keep Germans from surrounding Bastogne and allow defences there to be stabilised.
GERMANS: advance as quickly and hit as hard as possible to capture St. Clervaux, Oorhangen Crossroads and open the road to Bastogne.
There will be a random chit pull system of units arriving on both sides... so the battle escalates as units on both sides arrive piecemeal one side tries to patch up the holes while the other tries to probe for weaknesses...
Hoping to have this system standardised and to be able to use it for various settings/theatres.
There are two types of units:
1. Company (various types of infantry) - larger counters
2. Platoons (tanks, Stugs, light armour, guns, mortars and any other platoon-sized detachments that might appear in the campaign)
Vehicles counters have the number of vehicles listed next to the NATO symbol and losses are tracked on the counter and that number adjusted (all counters are editable in the Photoshop file through which I run the campaign)
Company/infantry counters have 3 pips under their NATO symbol that indicates the number of intact combat/rifle platoons this unit has.
(PzGrenadier counters also have a white pip that indicates they have a set of medium mortars attached)
After each battle, I will go through each platoon and assess losses -- if a platoon has +50% losses, it's pip is eliminated.
(Coy HQ's and vehicle crews of trucks and infantry carrier halftracks are ignored -- gun and fire support halftracks will appear as their own vehicle platoon counters)
There is full Fog Of War -- so most of the time, the respective Allied or Axis CO's will only see the the enemy FOW markers on the strategic map, indicating what type of units are present in an adjacent zone (if that) -- no strength details will be given as those will only become apparent once battle is joined (especially since this campaign will be fought in two days and one night of fog and bad weather)
So for example, you might have an enemy Armoured PzGren FOW marker with an enemy StuG FOW marker in the next zone from the one held by your units.
That'll indicate that halftrack-borne infantry has been spotted and tanks are present -- exact numbers and strengths unknown (you can assume approx company strength for the enemy infantry unit -- but how strong exactly is never clear until combat ensues.
As movement and attack orders for both sides will be played out simultaneously by me, you might have ME encounter battles were neither side has any clue of enemy strength -- so battles will have to be fought with flexibility in mind.
Bluff can also play a part -- if a small defending unit manages an ambush and give the enemy a bloody nose -- they might think your units are stronger than they appear and withdraw and await reinforcements.
There is a stacking limit of ONE company and 3 support platoons per zone -- this is to reflect the cramped nature of the battlefield with especially muddy road and ground conditions limiting off-road movement and deployment.
Movement and attack is from zone to zone along roads (solid connecting lines) -- during DAY 1 (when it's very muddy and foggy) foot infantry can advance along dotted lines (no vehicles at all)
At some point by nightfall of Day 1, it snows and the ground freezes, and tracked vehicles are allowed to move and attack in direction of the white connecting lines as well.
OBJECTIVES:
AMERICANS: fight a desperate two-day delaying action to keep Germans from surrounding Bastogne and allow defences there to be stabilised.
GERMANS: advance as quickly and hit as hard as possible to capture St. Clervaux, Oorhangen Crossroads and open the road to Bastogne.
There will be a random chit pull system of units arriving on both sides... so the battle escalates as units on both sides arrive piecemeal one side tries to patch up the holes while the other tries to probe for weaknesses...
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Spjut41st
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Is there any room to join?
O
olaf
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In
I'll play if there is room.